DRIVEN

June 23, 2007

Matt Sydal . . . makes the most of his chance to be on PPV and shows off exactly what he’s capable of.

Takeshi Morishima . . . backdrops Jimmy Rave right out of ROH into the Rock and Rave Infection.

Bryan Danielson . . . puts on the kind of match that ROH wants to showcase on national PPV.

DELIRIOUS/ERICK STEVENS/MATT CROSS vs. RODERICK STRONG/DAVEY RICHARDS/ROCKY ROMERO

This was the perfect match to open up the show with, a fast paced affair to get the already excited crowd rocking and rolling. This was what was lacking in the Strong/Delirious singles match on the first PPV, intensity and a genuine feeling of hate. The work itself isn’t much to write home about, but they compensate in other areas such as maintaining the level of intensity as well as all six being able to keep up the pace and making sure that there’s always something going on. Everyone gets a chance to look good, although there really isn’t a standout performer in the match, Cross gets to fly, Stevens and Strong duke it out Kobashi/Sasaki style (although not as long), and Romero, and especially Richards, have a level of intensity reminiscent of Chris Benoit. The finish itself falls a bit flat, because nobody, outside of Delirious early on, took any major punishment, so Cross falling to the DR Driver was a bit unexpected. Strong’s backdrop on the apron to Delirious and Davey’s DDT on the floor to Stevens are good reasons to explain why they can’t save. It’d have been nice to see them work a more structured match instead of the scramble style, but, given the impromptu nature of the match as well as the already existing feud, and this is perfectly acceptable.

CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI vs. MATT SYDAL

This is similar to Claudio and Sydal’s tag titles match with the Briscoe Bros, it’s about as flashy as can be, but they also manage to throw in plenty of smart touches. The best thing is that they manage to build up to certain spots, and then pay off the build up. They do an especially good job with Claudio’s bicycle kick, Sydal dodges and avoids it several times, and when Claudio finally hit it, Sydal takes a huge bump from it and Claudio gets a good near fall. The finish also falls into this category, with Sydal depending a bit too much on his hurricanrana. Whenever Sydal gets in too much trouble he can usually take Claudio over with the rana and build some momentum for himself, but he goes for it once too many times and Claudio rolls through it and winds up getting the pin. Combine that with their willingness to go all out on PPV, especially Sydal showing just how great his flying skills really are, and this isn’t too shabby at all. ***

NAOMICHI MARUFUJI vs. BJ WHITMER

There isn’t anything overtly wrong with this, but at the same time there’s nothing especially great about this. Its main purpose is to further the Whitmer losing streak storyline, which it does by virtue of Marufuji going over. There isn’t much as far as storytelling or developing any real themes throughout the match to make it anything more than angle advancement though. Their NOAH-like chop and strike exchange about halfway in tries to give the illusion of an even and hard-fought match, but Whitmer had only gotten in one big spot up to that point, a superplex, the rest had been all Marufuji.

One could argue that Marufuji’s need to ring Whitmer’s bell before hitting the Shiranui counts as storytelling. It’s not a bad idea in theory, but Marufuji rang Whitmer’s bell plenty of times, with some stuff a lot more damaging than his superkick, and Whitmer still managed to block and counter him. If Whitmer’s head getting bounced off the post, the coast to coast dropkick, and a slingshot DDT on the apron, aren’t able to do much damage, why should a single solitary kick? This does its job of keeping Whitmer’s losing streak going on, and then gets out of the way.

BRENT ALBRIGHT vs. PELLE PRIMEAU

How is it that the WWE’s alleged creative department had nothing for Brent Albright? He’s perfect in his role as a hired gun. While the little promo during Respect is Earned was admittedly cheesy, this certainly makes up for it. Brent destroys him in short order with some forearm shots and big suplexes, and then locks in the crowbar for the quick submission. It’s short, but it’s simple and extremely effective.

JAY BRISCOE/MARK BRISCOE © vs. KEVIN STEEN/EL GENERICO (ROH World Tag Team Titles)

Now we’re cooking! This really isn’t all that long, only about fifteen minutes and change, but it really gets over the hate between both teams as well as the contrast of character in Steen and Generico. Look no further than the opening minutes to get an idea, Generico follows the code of honor and shakes the Briscoes’ hands, and has a decidedly nice wrestling exchange. Steen is the polar opposite, wanting to brawl and put the hurt on them as much as possible, and his goal is to get Generico to turn the corner, and as the match progresses, that’s exactly what Generico does. So while the work isn’t very focused from a wrestling standpoint, it does a lot for characterization, which makes it just as worthwhile. When the match breaks down, the brawling is worthy of the angle that the match is predicated on, the only thing that it seemed to lack is some sort of payback to Steen for the chair shot to Mark.

The match picks up several notches, when Generico finally appears to turn the corner that Steen is pushing him to turn. It starts with Generico charging in and booting Jay in the face while he’s in the corner. From there, the match breaks down into an all out war with them seemingly trying to kill each other with spots like the Briscoes’ beale tossing Generico into the fifth row onto the piles of chairs, and Steen’s payback for that with the powerbomb to Mark into the crowd. But there’s still some semblance of an actual match, with Generico’s perfect springboard moonsault to Mark, after he’d stopped Steen from doing the package piledriver. The powerbomb into the crowd doesn’t just get a cool spot done. It also gets Mark out of the way that the challengers can try to finish off Jay. The diving stomp through the table to Steen is the same idea, it gets a nice pop, but it also serves to give the Briscoes the opening to finish off Generico with the spike Jay Driller. This match is yet another example of how misleading the term ‘spotfest’ can be, it’d be easy to label this as one, but to do so would be a gross understatement. ***1/2

ROH’s streak of making Morishima look like a world beater continues! It’s not like this is a total squash, Rave does manage to get in a few spots, and the openings for Rave to do so are perfectly logical. It’s not like NOAH where Morishima sells a superkick from Marufuji the same way he’d sell a lariat from Kobashi. Morishima tries to sit on Rave afer Rave fails to take him over with the sunset flip, only Rave moves out of the way, and that allows him to do the running knee. Rave trips Morishima while he’s charging and that leads to his heel hook. Rave tries for too much with the Pedigree and Morishima escapes and kills Rave in short order with a bit lariat and the backdrop. It’d be nice to see the title matches on PPV go a bit longer, and see Morishima pitted against someone a bit higher ranked (Whitmer and Rave were both lost in shuffle at this point), but the goal seems to be building him up as a dominant champion, so this has its purpose.

This is where the PPV taping proper ends, but ROH included a match from their 6/9/07 show to showcase on the PPV, which screws up their DVD continuity a bit. Before that, we’re “treated” to another Adam Pearce promo, and this time he doesn’t even call himself Scrap Daddy. Listening to him go on and on about how BJ Whitmer has needs is a bit homoerotic.

BRYAN DANIELSON vs. NIGEL McGUINESS (#1 Contender’s Match for the ROH World Heavyweight Title)

The dueling headbutt spot at the end was a bit unnerving to watch, but other that, this was exactly the sort of match that ROH needed to put on PPV to show the world. Two good wrestlers getting twenty five minutes to show what they can do. It’s a bit of a broad statement to sum up the match, but it’s an all around good match with minimal silliness and maximum smartness.

With this paring going at it, you know that the strikes will be laid in all the way, which they are, Danielson’s slaps, Nigel’s lariats, the chops, the European Uppercuts, they look and sound like they hurt like hell. They’re also smart enough to realize when something doesn’t go quite right, like when Nigel’s superkick doesn’t hit Danielson all the way, and Danielson doesn’t sell it the same way, it winds up giving Nigel a split second to try again with something else that does hit all the way. The learned spots are also a nice touch, the best of which is Nigel catching Danielson with the headstand kick in the corner early, and trying it again much later, only for Danielson to race in and hit Nigel first. It’s also a ball to watch just how quickly they go from a wrestling match to a fight, back to a match. They start off with a fairly nice wrestling sequence and Nigel goes for another handshake and Danielson slaps him across the face and they start trading shots, and then, just like that, they’re back on the mat wrestling again. They’re also good about working Nigel’s back into things, Danielson hurts it when does a suplex on the guardrail, and Danielson rolls him in the ring and starts dropping knees, elbows, and forearms right into his back. Nigel makes a comeback and isn’t able to get Danielson up for the Tower of London because of his back.

They keep the silliness to a minimum but there is still a little bit that sneaks in, the worst are Nigel’s rebounding lariats. Yes, the lariat has been established as his big strike. But when he swings between the ropes he looks like Terry Funk doing his drunk selling. The same thing when Danielson beats on him for a bit and throws him into the ring, only he ‘rebounds’ off the bottom rope and swings back to hit a lariat. Sure, the lariat itself looked good (like most of their other strikes) but the set up to it looks out of a video game. The only other “problem” is that these PPV shows are designed to introduce people who’d only seen WWE and TNA to ROH. Fans of that nature are used to the idea of good guys and bad guys. But which is which in this case? Danielson sure acts like a bad guy by throwing chairs and even a table and Nigel, but he gets huge crowd pops for it. Watching Danielson heel things up when working over Nigel’s back after the suplex on the guardrail is a blast, but, again, he’s getting cheered for it. Does that make Nigel the heel? Nigel’s Hulk-Up when Danielson starts slapping him makes him look like a babyface too. Hell, look who that sort of comeback was named after, the biggest babyface in all of wrestling. The finish also falls into the realm of questionable babyface/heel roles. Nigel blocking the Cattle Mutilation and getting elbowed into oblivion looks like a heel finally keeping the spunky babyface down, but when Danielson KO’s him with elbows and gets the Cattle Mutilation for the win, the crowd pops like it’s Hogan beating Savage, Angle beating Austin, or Goldberg beating Hogan. I’ve long since dropped drinking the kool-aid when it comes to ROH, or really any wrestling in general, but this is one case where you can absolutely believe the hype. ****1/4

Conclusion: The main event alone is enough reason to get this show, but throw in a pretty good tag titles match and a fun Claudio/Sydal match, and you’ve really got a winner on your hands.